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July 10, 2011

Take Your Time

My first novel took me three months to write. My second, six months. The third took even less. And what am I discovering? The less time I take to write the first draft, the more I have to revise. The same goes for query letters and synopsis.

I currently have two books to edit and seven to write. I'm anxious to finish the book I'm revising now. I want to start submitting it to BETA readers, write the synopsis and send out the query. I want to move on, but I know that if I rush, I will make mistakes. I will be forced to work on the MS far longer than if I'd taken my time and I will lose my passion for it.

I've always been told to finish the first draft quickly. Rush through it then go back and edit. This has worked for me in the past, but I'm not sure it has worked well. Some authors, such as Laurell K Hamilton, (seriously, if you don't read her blog go now. She shares a lot of her writing techniques) edit while they write, go back a few pages the next day, edit them again and then move on with the draft. This seems to work well for her and I'm now considering editing while I draft in order to limit my frustration as she does.

Perhaps I would not be so anxious/frustrated to get my books out if I wasn't so sick of editing them over and over.

My last novel, I edited and edited and edited some more while I drafted. I flew through the first draft of my WIP and now that I'm revising it I wish I would have taken a little time to edit while drafting. Seriously, it's such a mess and I can't count the number of times I've been tempted to throw up my hands and give up on it. But in the words of someone famous whose name I can't recall if something's worth doing it's worth doing well. So I'll persevere and take my time and give it the best I've got. Thanks for a great post.